February/March 2012

February found us in Austin, Texas at the Austin Lone Star Rv Resort. While here we had the slide on our 5th wheel fixed as it was not coming in correctly. We also visited the LBJ Presidential Library which we found very interesting. He was not my favorite president but I loved his wife and hearing about his daughters. The museum was done very nicely and located on the campus of a college. We watched a film about his life, family pictures, his limousine, displays of gifts they received, oval office and the firt lady gallery. We were disappointed cuz some floors were closed and the gift shop due to renovation. Why do you pay the same price when half closed?

We got to see the Colorado River while in Austin and tried to get close but the parks all charge just to look. We did get to visit the State Capitol and actually saw Governor Perry while visiting. The capitol building was built in 1888 and cost more than 3.7M to build. We got to see the senate chamber and the house of representatives. We also saw the legislative refernece library and court rooms. We visited the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum but we were not impressed. Kind of boring to us – don’t know if we have been to too many or just the way it was presented. All in all we enjoyed Austin.

Fredericksburg, Texas was a town we both fell in love with. Any town that still has an old fashioned downtown makes me smile – just love them. This town had an old 5 & Dime store called Dooley’s which we enjoyed so. They had everything set up like the stores looked back in the 1950’s. We enjoyed that so much. We visited an Amish Market with furniture, quilts, gifts from the Amish people. This town was settled in 1846 by the German’s and has load of german influence and food. We stayed at the Fredericksburg RV Park and enjoyed a wonderful lunch at Silver Creek Restaurant, a german restuarant.

While here we also visited the LBJ Ranch which is located in Stonewall, Tx. We visited the home of LBJ which they made look like it did back in 1963 when he became president. We saw his ranch, cars, planes, grandparents home, grave sites, his beautiful ranch and the runway on his property. His family is buried here in the same cemetary as he is. We really enjoyed the tour and seeing that even with all his money his home was very down to earth – not much different than all of our homes back in the 1960″s.

We really loved the town of Fredericksburg and hope to return again someday.

Heading west on the back roads we finally picked up I-10 where we stopped for the night at I-10 Travel Stop in Balmorhea, Texas. We both were quite tired and a $10 price because of Passport America made this a nice stop.

Did you know that the speed limit in Texas in some places is 80 MPH. I do not believe I ever drove that fast but think hubby has.

We saw lots of people walking on the highways with sleeping rolls which really surprised us. We also saw lots of windmill farms which I hope will lower the cost of electricity.

El Paso was our next stop staying at Fort Bliss for a few nights. This enabled us to grocery shop, laundry, and stock up on wine lol. We enjoy stopping here to break up the long journey west.

Valley of the Sun Rv Park in Marana, Arizonia, Valencia Travel Village for 2 nights in Castaic, California then onto Sharpe Army Depot which will be our home for a month.

The next day we were up early and headed to our daughter’s home in Livermore, Calif for a wonderful visit with Amanda, Tim, Joshua, Grace and Elijah. While in the area we visited, babysat, went to Ikea, shopped and ate and ate. We really enjoyed the grandchildren jush wish I could have everyone near all the time.

Around the middle of March we started back east stopping the first night in Bakersfield, California. We stopped in Barstow, Calif to visit Lamar, Tim’s brother, enjoyed a wonderful dinner and visit.

We saw an airplane cemetary in the Mojave Desert which was quite cool.

Our truck started acting up and we would have trouble all the way across country. Tim had it looked at 3 times and still no fixes so our plan was get to Charleston as quickly as possible to our dependable shop.

We stopped late at night in Kingman, Arizonia at Fort Beale Rv Park. We had stayed here a few years ago and enjoyed our stop. Our problem was parking as we usually never park in the dark, yikes hard to watch everything. Onto Meteor Crater Rv Park near Flagstaff, Arizonia where we again saw snow. It does look pretty I must add. While here Tim did not feel well so we just hung out for 2 days for some down time..

We stopped at Kirtland Air Force Base FamCamp in Albuquerque, New Mexico which we enjoyed. Got to grocery shop, get wine, go to Landry’s for a wonderful seafood dinner, laundry, talk to neighbors and just relax for the weekend.

Onto Amarillo Texas where we stayed in the Amarillo Ranch Rv Park for just one night. The girl in the office was from Ct – she was shocked that our cell phone is a CT number lol.

The trip into Oklahoma we took Route 66 for awhile. We saw a sign for the National Route 66 Museum in Elk City. We both said “lets go.” The parking lot was huge so plenty of room for the rv. Old Town was a huge old house showing the pioneer life in Ok. It had a player piano, icebox, kerosene stove which proved very interesting. They also had a blacksmith shop, farm and ranch museum, and a transportation building. Over the course of a block they had old buildings set up such as a doctors office, school, home, chapel, railroad depot, livery stables, opera house and a drug store. We enjoyed this little side trip and it gave us renewed energy.

That night we found a nice county park in El Reno on a lake. Only one other camper so it was extremely quiet. Great night sleep and we both wished we could of stayed longer.

We ran into lots of road construction the next day and after hours and hours of driving finally found a campground in Brinley, Arkansas. It was a hotel and campground and pretty run down so happy we can close out the rest of the world when we go inside and lock the doors.

On the 29th we arrived at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. Really nice campground and away from most of the base noise. The next day we went to the hospital to visit Devin whom had heart bypass surgery. We met his whole family and were pleased how good he looked after surgery.

Beaver Run Rv Park in Metter, Georgia was an overnight stop and then onto Charleston, South Carolina. We will be in Charleston for a month and then head west again. Stay tuned.